At the January 23rd meeting of the LAS Representative Assembly, members learned that LAS faculty had overwhelmingly approved the proposal to revise the bylaws of the Assembly to extend representation on the Assembly to all the General Faculty and restore the original intent of the bylaws. The update will allow all LAS faculty, including lecturers, to serve on or chair committees of the Representative Assembly and to be eligible to be elected to represent their departments on the Assembly after their sixth semester at Iowa State.
"We demonstrated a commitment to and support of our NTE faculty, giving them equal rights to participate in the college," said Douglas Gentile, professor of psychology and chair of the Representative Assembly.
The original LAS governance document included the full participation of "adjunct faculty" as eligible members and voters. However, over time university language changed, narrowing "adjunct" to a defined category of faculty and appearing to exclude non-tenure eligible faculty such as Lecturers.
The LAS Representative Assembly had asked for a vote of eligible college faculty to update the governance document to clarify the intention of the body to be the representative voice of the General Faculty as defined by the faculty handbook. This change that goes into effect immediately makes the membership rules of the LAS Representative Assembly more consistent with those of the Faculty Senate.